1983/01/01 by Anne D. Rassweiler · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Soviet and Russian History #Russia and Soviet political economy #Eastern European Communism and Reforms
paper · doi:10.2307/2497515
openalex publication_date 1983/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Recent interpretations of the first Five-Year Plan have taken two main approaches. One has emphasized the exploitation of workers and peasants by the party elite throughout the years of the first two Five-Year Plans. In explaining the evolution of labor policies and laws that bound the workers to jobs, Robert Conquest and Solomon Schwarz emphasize the personal responsibility of Stalin, who demanded rapid expansion of industrialization and brooked no questioning of his views. To obey him and to protect their political futures, his officials used tough policies designed to produce quick, visible results. Both authors describe a linear development of ever harsher proscriptions and penalties, and they attribute greater coherence to the process and greater effectiveness to the laws than actually existed. Both see the process from the viewpoint of the capital, disregard the competing ideas among the leaders, and neglect the local level where policies had to be executed and were often changed or ignored.